Velvet Blues
by Windraider
Summary: She had done it! She had found the perfect way to save him. However, even a being who rules over power can hit a bumpy road in life. What does she do than? She improvises.


**Okay, seriously, out of everything that has happened, this is going to be my worst, and by far absoutely the greatest and dumbest thing I have ever done. I cannot and probably will not actually try to continue this story because seriously. **

**This fic is so stupid, even I'm having trouble sucking up my gut just to write it, and yet by some NEGATIVE miracle, I finished it. **

**If there's going to be any humour it would be in the next episode okay? Although I doubt this story will continue. **

**No bashing please. Yeah I know it sucks, but no bashing.**

* * *

Minato awoke. Something that should not have been possible. He was destined to be the seal that forever separates Erubus from Nyx. But here he was, in a room he didn't know where he was. Lying on a bed looking up at the ceiling. He didn't know where he was, or how he got here. But one thing was certain. There was supposed to be something very wrong with the scenario, but he didn't know what it was apart from the fact that's he's not supposed to be awake.

"Okay, what is going on?" He mentally wondered as he continued to stare up at the ceiling. He raised his hand upwards towards the ceiling so as to see if he was really alive or not. He saw his hand, and that told him that he indeed had a body.

But…

"Is it just me, or is something wrong with this?" True enough, he noticed that there was something wrong with this. He held his position for several moments trying to figure out just what was wrong with this. He thought long and hard about it, and eventually, he realized just what it was.

"My hand, it looks slightly smaller than I remembered it to be." Off course it could have just been himself thinking that. Still he didn't care much about that as he tried to twist himself off the bed.

For some reason he felt disoriented. He tried walking straight, but found that he was having trouble doing so. Still he told himself that he was just tired, and it was nothing a little rinse in the washroom wouldn't fix.

And telling himself that, he left to the washroom. He turned on the tap and let the water flow. He scooped the water into his hands and splashed it over his face.

The cold water helped cool his head a bit. It allowed him some room to think, and he was glad for that. Turning off the tap, he reached for the towel to dry himself off. He looked into the mirror, and immediately he stopped.

He thought was hallucinating, so he rinsed his face again. When he looked back into the mirror, he knew immediately what was wrong. And it wasn't just the fact that he wasn't back at the seal.

"Wha-what..."

Because looking back in the mirror, he didn't see himself at all. No instead, what he saw was the face of Elizabeth. He thought he was still dreaming. But when he reached out to touch his face, he knew that it was no longer an illusion. In fact, while he still had absoutely no idea how he ended up in this situation, one thing was made very clearly.

He wasn't in his body anymore. No, he in Elizabeth's body.

Now let it be made clear that despite the fact that he's often very quiet and aloof, that didn't mean that he couldn't make any noise.

Let it be known, that he or rather she could scream very loudly.

Throwing himself out of the washroom he or rather she now quickly scampered about the room. Trying to figure out just what had happened, and how did things even end up in this situation.

She was hyperventilating. After all who wouldn't. Ignoring the fact that the said world hasn't come to an end yet, an even bigger question was how did this happen. Sure she had experienced countless things that were beyond that of human comprehension, but this was in a league of it's own.

She walked about the room, unable to believe what was going on here.

In her fit of panic, she knocked something over. There was a sound of something hard hitting the ground. She turned to the source of the noise and surprised he was when he laid eyes on it.

"Is this what I think it is?" Lying on the floor was a book, a very large book. She recognized it immediately. It was his persona compendium that Elizabeth always carried with her everywhere she went. He bent down and picked it up. The moment he did, something fell out from within it. It was a letter. He picked up the letter with his other hand. He turned it around, there was no address to whoever it was supposed to be sent to. For some reason he felt that it was addressed to him. He didn't really know why, he just felt that way. And so he opened the letter.

_"If you are reading this Minato-sama, than it means that my work was a success. Now I have never written a human letter before, so I apologize in advance if my words seem confusing._

_You humans truly have interesting ways of communication. Sadly I have not the time to explore them all."_

_I'll try to be as direct as possible. A year has already passed since your supposed death. Everyone else has moved on, all except for me. _

_Shortly after your death, I left the velvet room in search of ways to save you. It took over a year before I discovered a method of doing so. It was almost fool-proof. However a neglect on my part easily caused a major issue._

_On my journey, I discovered that I had three options when it came to saving you. I was certain that you wouldn't approve of several of them however._

_The first was to sacrifice someone. Another person with the ability to use the wild card. I knew however that you would not want that._

_The second was to change the world. However such an idea is impossible even for beings who rule over power._

_The last method had taken me over a year to discover. I had discovered a way to extract your soul without releasing the seal. Granted, it would have stripped you off all your powers rendering you human forever, but it was a small price to pay for your freedom. _

_I believe the last method was agreeable with you. It was safe and fool-proof. However fate happened to throw a problem in my direction. While I was away, your friends had cremated your body, leaving you without a body to return too. _

_Because of them, I was forced to take drastic measures. Seeing that you had no body, I decided to do the next best thing. Give you my body. _

_I transferred our souls. So now, I shall be the seal in place of you. _

_A foolish choice on my part. But I have no regrets about it. Perhaps one day, we might meet again."_

"Damn it!"

Crushing the letter immediately afterwards. She couldn't believe her stupidity. He knew that they shared feelings for each other, but he never imagined that she would be stupid enough to actually do something like this.

Off course when his rage supsided, all that was left was a feeling of emptiness. He couldn't just accept something like this so easily. And how could he just return to his friends, not after they thought that he was dead.

_"That leaves only one direction to go."_

She didn't like it one bit. But if there was anything that can be done to reverse this foolishness, she had no choice but to see him. Thankfully, Elizabeth had shown him the ropes when she was still green.

* * *

If there was a time when Minato wished he had a camera, now would be the time. For the time in his or rather her life now, Igor was speechless.

"This..."

"I know. I don't even know what to say anymore."

He wasn't surprised in the least bit when he saw that the velvet room was no longer an elevator heading towards the stars. But he was surprised that it became a limousine off all things.

"Igor, if there's any time I need some advice, now would be the time. Elizabeth swapped souls with me, becoming the seal instead. I need some advice on how to save her now...and I don't mean transfering my soul over again. Otherwise she'll just do this again."

Off course despite trying to sound normal, Minato was having a hard time doing so. First off, it wasn't just because of what had happened so far. It was also coupled with the fact that Igor was for once at a loss for words.

"I-I could use some advice about now if possible."

Addressing him a second time seemed to have a greater effect compared to the first as the old man regained his stature.

"I-I must admit. I...truly have no knowledge that could help you. In fact, I never dreamed I would ever see you again...even in such a form." The old man sighed in resignation.

Were this a more casual time, Minato would easily have dropped his jaws in shock at the old man giving off such an honest reply. However this was a time for serious talk. He or rather she now shook her head in disbelief.

"But Igor! If you can't help me, than what am I supposed to do?"

"Calm yourself. You will not be able to see the important things that truly matter if you don't."

She didn't exactly settle down, but it did stop her ranting. That alone gave her time to gather some thoughts. The old mystic took the opportunity to put in a word.

"Well now that you seem to be composed, why not start off by thinking just what do you want to do?"

It was a simple question, but it was one she never considered all this time. She thought about it long and hard before she spoke.

"I-I can't go back to everyone, not like this, and I certainly want to save Elizabeth."

"Than your new quest should be obvious."

Those few words were a nice does of water to her face. If anything, she wanted to hit herself for not realizing something so simple.

"Yeah, your right. It should have been obvious from the start. I'm sorry for wasting your time Igor."

"Think nothing off it. You may no longer be a guest of the velvet room, but nevertheless, you still remain a friend. Come and visit anytime you wish."

Much as she hate to admit it, Igor was actually quite the wise man. If only he wasn't so cryptic with his messages sometimes, he would really fit the description of a sage. Well a sage with a strange sense of humour.

Off course even if with her mind cleared, she still had no idea where to begin. After all, she wasn't borned a denizen who ruled over power, and she had no idea what Elizabeth had done during the past year, so it was impossible to replicate whatever she had done.

Knowing that however didn't damperned her spirits. For she was already used to difficult situations already. Even if this was somewhat different from what she was used to.

"By the way...can I ask something?"

"Speak your mind. Though be warned though, as you are no longer a guest of the velvet room, we may not be able to assist you."

"Fair enough. That was what I wanted to ask off you. Any reason why you turned the velvet room into a limonsine off all things?"

The old man chuckled at the question.

"Have you forgotten? Us denizens of the velvet room exist to assist the guests in whatever their quests are. Likewise, the velvet room also takes the form of whatever lies in the heart of the guest."

"Well in that case...what's the current guest like? He's probably another wild card like me am I correct?"

"That is correct. He is in fact, the one with the most potential so far to have ever stepped into the room. Given enough time, he might just surpass you."

"Just like I surpassed the previous wild cards? I'm certain if there's a 5th generation, that 5th generation will surpass him."

"Perhaps, perhaps not. All you guests who step into the velvet room are very interesting I must confess."

Off course, she didn't really need to know about this kind of things, but she just wanted to talk to someone spending time alone within the deepest reaches of space would make anyone feel lonely.

...even Igor was better than nothing.

"Say...now that I think about it, what happened to Margaret? I haven't seen her not since the vision quest she put me through."

Upon hearing this question, the old man chuckled.

"Like Elizabeth, Margaret has a will of her own. I do not make it my business to watch over her."

"Hmm..."

She now stopped to think about something.

"Hey Igor, could you not mention my visit here? I don't think it would be good for me if I met Margaret now." She shuddered. It was already a huge risk coming here, it was just luck that she was away at the moment.

"Ah yes...perhaps that would be for the best. Even I do not know what she will do to you should she encounter you."

"Oh yes, the second question I wanted to ask is...how do I use my powers now? I no longer have an evoker."

Upon asking the question, she had a slight take back when Igor started chuckling again. Much returning to the cryptic old man she remembered him to be. But than again upon further thinking, Igor is a denizen of a timeless room that grants him near omni-potent powers. Enough to literally fuse souls together to form a greater power. Asking a stupid question like that would easily make him laugh.

The old chuckled for several moments as if he was told a hillarious joke of some sort before looking her in the eye. "Have you forgotten? Elizabeth was a being who rules over power like her sister Margaret. The use of an evoker is uneeded. Recall your duel with her if you must. She summoned your persona's without one."

"Yeah I-" She stopped halfway. She realized that he said something that hit home in the back of her head. "Wait...repeat that again. The part about her summoning personas?"

The old man's smile widen at her reaction, but nothing more. "I said, she summoned your persona's without an evoker." Off course that got a reaction from her, but he didn't let her say anything. "Why are you surprise? Have you forgotten? She was the one who managed your persona compedium in the first place. Every single persona with the exception of pixie she used originally belonged to you. You were the one who registered them into it."

One second...two seconds...three seconds...four seconds...five seconds...

"She-she summoned my persona's? You mean, all that time, I was fighting against my own persona's?" She softly muttered to herself in shock, momentarily forgetting the old man in her presence. "And than...there was all those times when I paid for withdrawing them...were-were they-"

"They were used for her allowance in the real world. After all, as denizens of the velvet room, we have little usage for real world money. She probably charged your just for the sake of future plans in the human world."

Clong She dropped her head and collided it with the table in front of them. Unable to believe her own stupidity. Had she known that all her hard earned money would end up going to fountains and shrine donation boxes, she never would have bothered with her services.

"If it makes you feel any better, Margaret does the same thing to our current guest."

"Unfortunately that doesn't remove the pain of knowing that she spent the millions of yen spent on fountains and shrine boxes." Off course she wasn't really hurt by that physically or mentally. She was just surprised that all her hard earned money was used in such a manner. After several moments of moaning, she finally got back to business.

"Anyway, can I ask a few things about the way I am now?" She was curious, she needed to know at least as much as possible about Elizabeth's body and powers if she was going to do anything with it. "I learnt that-"

"She has more powers than you imagined am I correct?" He cut her off.

She nodded at his reply. "If anything, getting slapped by a book was a lot more painful than being set ablaze by a demon from the underworld. That should have been the first indication that her powers wasn't normal."

"That was one perk of being one who rules over power. You must discover the rest on your own. Remember, you are no longer the guest of the velvet room. I can no longer assist you whatsoever."

"Than how do I summon Persona's?"

"You figure that out on your own."

'Hmm...well...I'm bored. Is there anything to do?"

"I am unable to do anything for you than. My role is to assist guests after all, not that you are one anymore."

"I know, I just want to ask what the new guest is like? I can't help but be curious about him." Off course all this was just a distraction from her current plight. She didn't have the slightest clue about how to go around fixing this mess. So if anything, this topic would serve as a nice distraction instead.

"That is something you should see for yourself instead of listening to my words. If you wait long enough, you just might meet him."

She shivered at his words. "And if I wait long enough, I might also meet Margaret. Which I truly—" She cut herself off as she turned away. "-believe is not a good thing at the moment."

"Humph…" He chucked yet again. "As usual, despite no longer being a guest of the velvet room, you still remain as interesting as ever."

"I don't think there's anything interesting about me fearing for my life." She shuddered. She still remembers just how dangerous Margaret was compared to Elizabeth. And that was speaking volumes. He was able to defeat Elizabeth one on one, but he needed 4 people just to defeat Margaret, and that was in his old body when he still had the power of death. Granted, Margaret didn't possess as much raw power as her sister, but she had a much wider variety of moves that made her far more dangerous. "Anyway, I think I should be going now I don't—"

Creek

She paled. The door the velvet room was opening. Someone was returning, she could easily see her death coming.

"_Steam and murder…but much worse." _She concluded her fate. Margaret was going to enter at any second now, and she was going to die when she finds out what happened to Elizabeth.

"Igor. You there?"

But it wasn't the voice of Margaret. It was a completely different person. It was a guy who walked in.

The said guy was a teenager who looked to be around a tall 17 year old or slightly older she estimated. He wore a traditional high school uniform belonging to a school she didn't know off. However the most noticeable thing off all, was his hair. Not only was it sliver in color, it was even more surprisingly shaped into the form of a bowl. He was about to take a seat when he stopped and looked at her now.

"Oh…umm…hello there…." He addressed her. Clearly the tone of surprise in his voice indicated that he wasn't expecting anyone else in the room.

She stared at him for several moments or so before she finally turned to Igor, surprise was evident in her expression. "Umm…Igor…would this be…"

"Yes, Minato-sama, I would like you to meet Souji-san, he is your successor and the next guest of the velvet room." The old man chuckled again after introducing him. He then looked back at her after introducing him to do the same to her. "Souji-san, meet your predecessor, the previous guest of the velvet room, Minato sama."

"Nice to meet you."

"Likewise." They shook hands. Off course, while they were complete strangers, there was one thing she was sure off. And that was why she had a guy's name despite being a girl. There will be time to answer that later on. "Anyway, you here to see Igor? Looking for a new persona?"

He shook his head. "I actually came here to take some requests, but it doesn't look like Margaret's here." He answered as he turned around. "So...maybe I'll dropby later."

As he was about to step out of the room, she called out to him.

"Wait! You mind if I come with you? I need to get out of here." She stood up and walked up to him. "Please, just allow me this favour."

"Umm...okay?" Souji replied in a surprise tone. It didn't take a genius to figure out that she was asking a strange request when she could have just walked out on her own.

* * *

"Well...thanks again. I really needed to get out of foreign lands. I didn't know my way around Germany off all places."

"That's...all right. But can I ask something?"

"You want to ask who am I really? And why am I called Minato despite being a girl? Yeah I can answer that." Obviously, those were the most expected things to ask of him, it didn't take a genius to figure out what he wanted to know.

His reply to that was a simple nod. Currently the two were standing over a small hill across the village of Inaba looking at the sunset. "You can start with who you are first."

She sighed as she stretched herself. "Well, I'm sure you already heard from Igor that I was the previous guest of the velvet room before you came. But I think I'll start off with an introduction first." She decided as she finished stretching herself before turning to face him. "My name is Minato Arasito, and if you must know, I'm really a guy. How I ended up in this state? I'll tell you later, for now just let me finish my introduction."

Souji simply replied by nodding his head in agreement.

"My last memories date back to ten years ago at Port Island Tatsumi. I lost my family on an accident at the moonlight bridge."

"I'm sorry to hear that."

"Don't be." She shook her head. "I can't even remember their faces or if I had any siblings. Moving on...afterwards I pretty much was shuffled from one place to another. And than after several years, I went back there again for my high school, and it was there did everything begin."

"What happened?"

"The dark hour, it is-no was a hidden hour between the 24 hours daily. During this time, the sky and moon turns green, and blood is splattered everywhere in the city. Only those with the potential of Persona were able to move about, and at that time, I didn't even realize I was one of them."

"You said was..." He dragged off that last word as if implying something. "Does that mean it's no longer around."

"Just let me finish."

"Sorry."

She cleared her throat before starting again. "Anyway...at first I entered the school dorm like any other student would, but what I didn't realize was that the student dorm, was filled with potential or already awakened persona users. It was only after a full moon shadow attacked, did I discover the truth, and awaken my potential."

"Full moon shadow?"

She nodded to emphazise the importance of them. "Correct, full moon shadows are shadows that are superior compare to normal ones. If you were to think of them as a story base, you could say that full moon shadows are like the bosses, or leaders of shadows. Like their name states, full moon shadows only appear during the full moon."

"So what happens next?"

"Well...at that time, a friend of mine woke me up when I was asleep, she had given me a sword and told me to run. I didn't know what was happening, but she still made me run. Anyway, we ran to the rooftop, where we cornered by a full moon shadow. There Yukari...one of my comrades tried to summon her persona, but she was paralyzed by fear, not only because of the shadow, but because of the method we used to summon it, even if it was completely harmless." She chuckled at the memory of her freezing up telling herself that she could do it, only to completely forget the shadow approaching her.

Obviously, that last statement left him wondering something. "Method used? What method could be so terrifying that you would freeze up in the face of the enemy? If she was afraid of the shadow, I can understand."

She smirked at his naive answer. "Well than, do you mind if I ask you to shoot yourself in the head with a gun, would you do so?"

"Obviously not." He replied immediately, wondering why was there a need to ask such a thing.

"And that's why she froze up. Back than the only way to summon a persona was with a tool called an evoker. It's basically a gun, not a real gun, but shaped to look like one. It's function was to force your persona out by shooting yourself in the head."

"Sounds crazy."

"Believe me, things gets crazier later on." She chuckled. "Anyway, Yukari was knocked down, and her evoker flew towards me, I picked it up in a blood drench puddle, and guess what happened next?"

"You used it?" It was either that or run.

"Correct, but not because I knew what to do." She shook her head while smiling. "It was because some little kid in pyjamas stood from afar and screwed my mind. He made me shoot myself in the head and summoned my persona."

"Wait, wait, wait." He cut her off. "Your telling me some little boy actually controlled you into shooting yourself in the head with a gun?"

"Yeah like I said, things get crazier later on. Anyone, what happened next was even crazier. My persona who just recently awoken was no match for a full moon shadow, and I was beaten badly, and as a result I nearly lost. But just when all hope was lost, something happened, and a second persona burst out from within my first persona. It ripped Orpheous apart from within, and tore it's body into half. The identity of the persona that did that was Thanatos, its power easily ripped the full moon shadow apart, and once it did, it left and I passed out for several days."

As soon as she was done with that, she turned around, ready to walk away. "Anyway, that's enough for today, I'll tell you the rest some other day. For now however, I need to rest, so much has happened in one day, I can't even begin to comprehend everything myself. But before I do, I suppose there's one thing I could tell you."

"What is it?"

She turned back to face him again. "This body...it doesn't belong to me, it belongs to Elizabeth, Margaret's younger sister. Certain...certain things happened, and I ended up in it, so...at the moment, call me Elizabeth instead. It feels weird calling me Minato while I'm in her body."

"What kind of things?"

"I'll tell you some other time along with my history. But anyway, for now I would need to ask you not to mention me towards Margaret, if she finds out what happened to her sister, I'm going to die. No seriously, she'll kill me. She really can do that."

He nodded in agreement. "What about Igor? Can he be trusted?"

"Igor's creppy, but yeah he can be trusted. All I'm asking is for your corperation in it."

"I suppose I can keep a secret or two."

"Good, in that case, don't mind if I make a move first than." There was plenty of things she had to sort, but for today, she needed some rest. Thankfully, one thing she inherited was Elizabeth's bottomless purse. Money was certainly no issue for a long time.

"Wait!" He called out to her. She turned around surprise that he would do so. "I still have some questions, but for now, I just want to know, if anything comes up, how should I contact you?"

"I'll be around somewhat in Inaba looking around for a place to stay, but first I'll enjoy my new found freedom. If anything, I'll look for you." With nothing else to say, she made her move, leaving the fourth generation wild card to himself.


End file.
